The Starfighter Corps, also known simply as Imperial pilot corp, was a component of the Imperial Navy under the aegis of Flight Branch that controlled the Navy’s starfighters and pilots.

After the Declaration of a New Order in 19 BBY, the Republic Starfighter Corps lost its status as an independent arm of the military and was merged with the Imperial Navy. Unlike the Republic Navy, the Imperial Navy’s doctrine focused on capital ship firepower rather than starfighter superiority and it subordinated the Starfighter Corps to this role. Consequently, the Empire turned away from snubfighter development, seeing it as a distasteful legacy of the great swarms of Vulture droid starfighters deployed by the Confederate Navy during the Clone Wars. The Empire instead focused on the creation of a new generation of space superiority fighters, culminating in Sienar Fleet Systems‘ TIE Series of starfighters.

The TIE/LN Line Starfighter and the TIE/SA Bomber were barebones fighter designs built around a ball-shaped cockpit and Raith Sienar’s revolutionary twin ion engine design. Seen as complements to Star Destroyers, they served as escorts, scouts, hit-and-fade raiders, and bombers supporting ground troops. As such, they lacked hyperdrives, deflector shields, or even life support systems, reducing their mass and giving them great speed and maneuverability, but also limiting their survivability and their range.

TIE Fighters were deployed from the Victory-class Star Destroyer Strikefast as early as one week after the Declaration of a New Order, and they generally served the Starfighter Corps well during the Reconquest of the Rim and the campaigns against the last Separatist holdouts during the early Imperial Period, piloted by such Imperial aces as Shea Hublin. The Corps’ doctrine went largely unchallenged until the Alliance to Restore the Republic emerged as a credible opponent to the Empire after 1 BBY. In time, the TIE Fighter came to be the most potent symbol of the Imperial Navy’s control of space.